▪ Abstract  Energetic materials are chemical compounds or mixtures that store significant quantities of energy. In this review, we explore recent approaches to property prediction and new material synthesis. We show how the successful design of new energetic materials with tailored properties is becoming a practical reality.

We report the first quantum-based multiscale simulations to study the reactivity of shocked perfect crystals of the insensitive energetic material triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB). Tracking chemical transformations of TATB experiencing overdriven shock speeds of 9 km/s for up to 0.43 ns and 10 km/s for up to 0.2 ns reveal high concentrations of nitrogen-rich heterocyclic clusters. Further reactivity of TATB toward the final decomposition products of fluid N(2) and solid carbon is inhibited due to the formation of these heterocycles. Our results thus suggest a new mechanism for carbon-rich explosive materials that precedes the slow diffusion-limited process of forming the bulk solid from carbon clusters and provide fundamental insight at the atomistic level into the long reaction zone of shocked TATB.

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We report Raman, infrared, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, along with ab initio calculations on formic acid (FA) under pressure up to 50 GPa. We find an infinite chain Pna2(1) structure to be a high-pressure phase at room temperature. Our data indicate the symmetrization and a partially covalent character of the intrachain hydrogen bonds above approximately 20 GPa. Raman spectra and XRD patterns indicate a loss of long-range order at pressures above 40 GPa, with a large hysteresis upon decompression. We attribute this behavior to a three-dimensional polymerization of FA.

We present the results of a quantum molecular dynamics simulation of the chemistry of HMX, a high performance explosive, at a density of 1.9 g/cm3 and temperature of 3500 K, conditions roughly similar to the Chapman−Jouget detonation state. The molecular forces are determined using the self-consistent-charge density-functional-based tight-binding method. Following the dynamics for a time scale of up to 55 ps allows the construction of effective rate laws for typical products such as H2O, N2, CO2, and CO. We estimate reaction rates for these products of 0.48, 0.08, 0.05, and 0.11 ps-1, respectively. We also find reasonable agreement for the concentrations of dominant species with those obtained from thermodynamic calculations, despite the vastly different theoretical underpinning of these methodologies.